This vast Pictorial Archive collection offers you the beauty and vigor of 2,500 authentic Indian designs that come from all over the United States, including Alaska and the Canadian Pacific Coast. Dating from prehistoric times (c. 1000 B.C.) to the end of the nineteenth century, these designs have been selected from illustrations in the first 44 Annual Reports of the prestigious Bureau of American Ethnology, a branch of the Smithsonian Institution, by American and Indian art expert Maria Naylor.
The illustrations show designs and objects of innumerable kinds, including decorated vases and bottles; bowls, bottles, and pipes in the shape of birds, animals, and human heads; pottery vessels and their scrolled and fretted designs, including much Pueblo pottery with spiral, bird, animal, and other designs; shell gorgets with conventionalized rattlesnake designs; winger human figures and equal-arm cross designs on plates made by the Mound Builders; geometric and floral patterns on beadwork; pictographs of the battle of the Little Bighorn and other scenes; symbolic tipi decorations; masks depicting shamans such as the killer whale, wolf, raven, etc., dancing masks with human faces, ceremonial masks with half-human, half-animal faces, and incredibly elaborate Zuñi masks with their abstract designs; baskets and their conventionalized designs composed of stripes, chevrons, geometric figures, zigzags and so on; amazing Hopi katcina figures; legendary Zuñi and Navaho sand paintings with their pictograph-like figures; and much more. Each illustration or group of illustrations on one page has a caption containing information condensed from the Reports such as date and use of objects, tribe, region, etc.
To make consideration of these illustrations easier, they have been divided into five categories: Prehistoric Art of the Eastern Woodlands; The Eastern Woodlands in the Historic Period; The Plains Area; The Northwest Coast, Alaska and the Arctic Regions; and The Southwest. If you are a commercial artist or illustrator who has been looking for authentic Indian designs, you are sure to find all that you need in this splendid collection. Anyone interested in the art of the North American Indian will find this collection to be an indispensable, comprehensive sourcebook.
